Three-dimensional homogeneous almost contact metric structures (Q387266)

A manifold \(M^{2n+1}\) is said to be almost contact if its structure group can be reduced to \(\mathrm U(n)\). Equivalently, this means that \(M\) admits an almost contact structure, that is, a triple \((\varphi, \xi, \eta)\), where \(\varphi\) is a (1,1)-tensor, \(\xi\) a global vector field and \(\eta\) a 1-form, such that \(\varphi(\xi ) = 0\), \(\eta\circ\varphi= 0\), \(\eta(\xi) = 1\) and \(\varphi^2 = - {\mathrm{Id}} + \eta\otimes \xi\). A Riemannian metric \(g\) on \(M\) is said to be compatible with the almost contact structure if \(g(X, Y)= g(\varphi X, \varphi Y)+ \eta(X)\eta(Y)\). The fundamental two-form of an almost contact metric structure is given by \(\Phi(X, Y) = g(X, \varphi Y)\). If the condition \(d\eta = \Phi\) is fulfilled, then the \((M, \varphi, \xi , \eta, g)\) is called a contact metric manifold. The left-invariant contact metric structures on Lie groups were studied in many works, see for example [\textit{A. Diatta}, Differ. Geom. Appl. 26, No. 5, 544--552 (2008; Zbl 1152.53064)]. The following result is known: every \(3\)-dimensional non-abelian Lie algebra has a contact form, except \(\mathbb R^2\rtimes \mathbb R \,\mathrm{Id}_{\mathbb R^2}\). In this paper the author considers left-invariant \textit{almost} contact metric structures on three-dimensional Lie groups, satisfying \(d\eta(\xi,\cdot)=0\). Then, the integral curves of \(\xi\) are geodesic and \(L_\xi \eta = 0\). It is proved that any three-dimensional Riemannian Lie group admits such structures. This study leads to the complete classification of three-dimensional left-invariant normal almost contact metric structures, as well as all cases where the one-form \(\eta\) is contact. The author studies also almost contact metric properties of these examples and harmonicity properties of their characteristic vector fields. The paper includes the following sections: Preliminaries; Three-dimensional unimodular case; Three-dimensional non-unimodular case; Almost contact metric properties; Harmonicity properties of the characteristic vector field.